Admissions

Admissions Arrangements for Camden School for Girls Sixth Form – September 2018

The Admissions System

Each year the school admits a minimum of 140 external students into Year 12 of the sixth form for AS and A level courses. The actual number of places available to external students joining the school in Year 12 depends on the number of internal students continuing into the sixth form. No more than half the external places will be given to boys. In addition 30 students will be put on the waiting list.

How places are allocated to external students

The basic qualification: All applicants must have an academic reference from their current school stating their predicted grades. These must in all cases include GCSEs at grade 6 or above in English language and mathematics, and 3 other GCSEs at grade 6 or above or ‘B’ or above in the unreformed subjects. To study Further Maths students must be predicted a minimum of grade 7 or above.

Places will first be offered to applicants meeting the basic qualification (and any higher individual grade requirements in relation to their specific subjects) who have an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan naming the school (issued by their local authority).

Places will then be offered in the following order:

Looked after2 and previously looked after3 children

Looked after children or children who were previously looked after but immediately afterwards became subject to an adoption, residence, or special guardianship order.

Applicants having a sibling4 living at the same address and already attending the school at the time of admission.

In cases where multiple siblings tie for the last place, then all will be offered a place, even if this exceeds the planned admission number.

Applicants who can provide evidence of an exceptional social or medical need that Camden School for Girls is specifically able to meet.

Such applications will only be considered if the case is made known to the school and supported by appropriate evidence at the time of the original application. This will normally be in the form of a letter from a suitably qualified professional such as the applicant’s doctor, consultant or social worker.

The remaining places will be allocated to those applicants meeting the basic qualification who live closest to the school and for whom places on their chosen courses are available.

Closeness to the school is measured in a straight line (‘as the crow flies’) from the centre of the pedestrian gate in the perimeter fence on Sandall Road and the permanent address at which the applicant normally resides at the time of the application. The school will carefully verify the permanent address of the applicant.

Once applicants have been ranked according to distance, places will be allocated in order of closeness to the school, subject to the following procedures.

Once the places available for a particular course of study have been filled, any other applicant who has chosen that course will be not considered for admission, regardless of whether places are available on other courses that the applicant has chosen.

In the event that half the places available to external applicants have been filled by boys, no further boys will be considered for admission except to the extent that they may be placed on the waiting list (as to which see below).

In the unlikely event of more than one applicant being tied for entry under these criteria, the place will be randomly allocated.

The furthest distance that successful applicants live from the school varies from year to year and depends upon the varying demand for individual courses.

The school reserves the right to withdraw courses that fail to recruit in sufficient numbers.

30 students will be put on the waiting list. As places become available they will be offered to the students on the list in order, provided that their courses are available.

The Application Timetable

Application forms will be available from Thursday 5th October 2017

An Open Day will be held on Tuesday 21st November 2017

The deadline for completed applications is Friday 5th January 2018

On receipt of applications, academic references are sought by the school from the applicant’s current school. The final date for receipt of the reference is Wednesday 21st February 2018.

We will notify applicants and parents if a reference is not received by Wednesday 7th February 2018 which is 14 days before the deadline. It is then the responsibility of the applicant to follow up our reference request from their current school.

All applicants who receive a conditional offer will be invited to attend a ‘Welcome Evening’ at the school to give students an insight into the ethos of the school.

Conditional offer letters will be sent on Wednesday 28th March 2018 requesting a reply by Monday 16th April 2018.

Students who are not originally offered a place because they were not predicted the correct grades or due to distance from the school, will be invited to attend a Supplementary Enrolment Session on the official Enrolment Day if (a) they do achieve the correct grades (b) are still interested in a place.

Conditions

All places offered are subject to the following post-acceptance conditions:

The applicant must provide documentary proof of having in fact obtained GCSEs at or above level 6 in English language and mathematics, and 3 other GCSEs at grade 6 or B or above.

The applicant must provide documentary proof of having in fact all relevant entry requirements.

The applicant must produce proof of address in the form of a copy of their parent/guardian’s current council tax bill.

Any applicant who is unable to satisfy these conditions will not be admitted to the school.

In order to be given highest priority for admission, a child has to fall within the definition of 'looked after' in section 22 (1) of the Children

Act 1989. As this Act applies to England and Wales, a child has to be looked after by an English or Welsh local authority

Paragraph 1.7 of the School Admissions Code gives equal highest priority to 'previously looked after children'. Given the definition of a looked after child, a child will have to have been looked after by an English or Welsh local authority in order to be considered previously looked after. Under paragraph 1.7 of the Code, a child has to have been looked after immediately before they were adopted or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order. In addition, in order to fall within the definition of a previously looked after child, an adopted child must have been adopted under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 This Act did not come fully into force until December

2005; it is therefore not possible for a child to have been adopted under that Act prior to then

(4) Sibling is defined in these arrangements as; a sister or brother, a half sister or brother, an adopted sister or brother, a step- sister or brother or the child of the parents’ partner where the child for whom the school place is sought is living in the same family unit and at the same address as that sibling.